The Predecessor
by Medie
Summary: What if Nina wasn't Jack's first choice for ASAC


Title: The Predecessor  
Author: M.Edison  
Feedback: Yes please, keep it polite! But send to medison@thezone.net  
Keywords: AU  
Spoilers: None  
Disclaimer: I don't own 24 or it's characters or concepts. I did create Katrina but believe me,   
you wouldn't want her. She's no picnic.  
Summary: What if Nina wasn't Jack's first choice for ASAC?  
  
Author's note: I do plan on doing more Ripple Effect. *Grins* I suspect the premiere of 24 should  
revive my Jack & Caryn muses nicely.  
  
The Predecessor  
by M.  
--------  
  
The alleyway was dark and damp; a slight rain was beginning to fall as the two agents hurried   
along its murky walls. Caution led them to keep back against the filth-ridden brick, casting   
glances back and forth; communicating through their eyes, not trusting their voices.   
  
Something flicked by at the end of the alleyway and they froze, guns lifting into position.   
The blond man looked at his slim partner, raising an eyebrow and inclining his head. He was   
going first.  
  
The raven-haired woman frowned, her brow furrowing.  
  
He flashed a grin at her and suppressed a chuckle when she pursed her lips and nodded. He   
hadn't been waiting for her approval but it was fun to see that look on her face.   
  
A quick check of their guns and then he flashed around the corner.   
  
She waited a beat then followed.  
  
----  
  
Betrayal is never something that's easy to face but when it comes from someone you trust with  
your life. From someone who was supposed to be watching your back...  
  
She caught sight of a glint of silver, it was only a flash and at the corner of her eye.   
She didn't have a chance to yell, to warn, to do anything but leap forward.  
  
The bullet tore into her body with a dull thud and the last thing Katrina O'Dell remembered,   
was Jack Bauer's confused eyes as he looked back at her.  
  
----  
  
The radio blared some Ricky Martin song into the sunny bedroom and the woman lying in the   
middle of the bed jerked awake with little movement save for an arm flailing out for the   
clock.  
  
It was out of reach and she grumbled as she rolled her body over and brought her palm down  
on the clock almost viciously.   
  
"Damn thing." She grumbled sleepily, rubbing her eyes.  
  
Pushing herself upright, Katrina looked around for her ever present companion and spotted   
it on the opposite side of the bed. With a sigh, she pushed herself upright and used her   
arms to pull her lower body across the wide mattress. She picked up each leg and swung it  
down over the edge of the bed before reaching out to draw the wheelchair closer.  
  
It took some maneuvering but she made it into the chair without incident, getting settled  
quickly, before wheeling out around the bed and down the hallway.  
  
"Coffee..."  
  
Letting the chair's momentum carry her down the ramp into the kitchen, the former ASAC of  
the Counter Terrorism Unit smiled when she saw the percolator going full tilt, burbling  
merrily as it filled with the dark liquid. She loved this time of day. The sun just up and  
the city still sleepy...somewhat.  
  
With a casual push, Katrina rolled through the main sitting area to the patio doors that   
overlooked the city.  
  
After the shooting...after the surgeries, the tests, the diagnosis, when she'd realized   
she'd have to give up the CIA, the CTU, and her old life...she'd fought depression.   
Secretly of course. Katrina O'Dell had never been the type to ever let on how she felt   
or how she was suffering. She refused to be seen as weak by anyone. Not even her own   
partner. Especially not when said partner was in the midst of blaming himself for her   
disability.   
  
She snorted. He hadn't been the one who pulled the trigger. And he hadn't been the   
genius who'd tossed herself through the air rather than shout a warning.  
  
Shaking her head, she ran a hand through her mussed black hair. It was in the past.  
She was what she was. Capable of what she was capable of. All had moved on. Even Jack.  
  
She knew he still struggled with the guilt sometimes. Usually it manifested itself   
in a visit to her new house armed with some spy movie to make fun of and a pizza to  
wolf down. She always provided the beer and inevitably joked about drinking and wheeling.   
  
Originally it had manifested itself as a fierce need to be *sure* there was no other  
option. No way to reverse it. When Jack Bauer focused on something it was intense and  
to the point that other people sometimes feared it. The doctors certainly had been   
scared of him...well...professionally anyway. Someone with his background could   
certainly create a few logistical nightmares.  
  
But, once it had been made clear there was nothing that could be done...He'd found   
her this place. A home she could manuever around easily in her chair.  
  
She'd tolerated the voracious search because she'd known it helped him...But, now,   
sitting here, staring out at the view, she knew Jack had once again been right.   
This place was perfect for her. It was good for her soul.  
  
Katrina sat there, staring out at the city's skyline, thinking.  
  
Jack had a way of always knowing what was right for her. But then, she had the same   
of him. It was a partner thing she assumed. Born of all the times she'd chased him   
into some live or die battle without so much as a hesitation. But not only that, it  
had been born of friendship too.  
  
Friendship that meant they did whatever they had to for the other. Friendship meant  
she'd opened her home to him during the separation with Teri. Friendship meant she   
listened to him talk about it even though it broke her heart to see the defeated   
look on his face. Friendship meant she was a friend to him despite the fact she'd   
been in love with him for years.  
  
With a sigh, the raven-haired woman shook herself from her musings and turned her   
chair around, heading back into the kitchen to get her coffee. She missed seeing   
him every day. In a lot of ways it had been a bittersweet agony for her, helping   
him head the CTU. She got to see him every day, be close, but always with the   
knowledge that working with him, being his friend, it was all she would ever get   
to have. He belonged to Teri. But...  
  
She sighed again. Such thoughts were better off left in the past. Along with   
everything else she missed.  
  
"Dancing." Katrina mumbled to herself, pouring a cup of coffee. "I miss dancing."  
  
It hadn't been something she'd gotten to do much but...she'd loved it anyway.  
  
The last time she'd danced was with Jack, ironically enough. During a state thing,  
providing security for some fatcat diplomat. They'd hated the assignment but Division  
had spoken. She still rolled her eyes when she thought about that. They hated kowtowing  
to the brass but every now and then it had to be done. Kept the bureaucrats happy and  
kept them in business.  
  
But still...as assignments went, it had been pretty good. She'd gotten to get dressed  
up, get her hair and make up done on the Company's tab then spend the night dancing   
and eating fancy-smancy foods that she could have never hoped to afford on a government  
salary.  
  
They'd had fun too. If she closed her eyes she could still feel her skirt swishing about  
her legs as she moved, hear Jack laughing at some crack she'd made about a senator's wife,  
still smell the aftershave he'd worn...  
  
"Damn it." Katrina mumbled in an uncharacteristic display of irritability. "Quit it O'Dell...  
mooning never gets you anywhere, except depressed." Leaving the coffee sitting on counter,   
she rolled across to get a cinnamon roll from the fridge. She didn't bother to heat it up   
just put a napkin on her lap and dropped the baked good on it before going back to get the  
coffee.  
  
Returning to the spot where she'd been staring out at the skyline, she munched on her   
breakfast....watching the city go by before her.  
  
It was a quiet life. Her income from her consulting and the articles she wrote were enough to  
pay the bills so she didn't have to deal with that worry. She didn't have to deal with much.   
Her life was quite sedentary. Almost too sedentary.  
  
God but she missed the work...  
  
She missed it all.  
  
She shouldn't want what she couldn't have...  
  
But that didn't stop her.  
  
It never would.  
  
Finis 


End file.
